Friday, 31 January 2014

Recently I thought it would be very useful to know how to create a simple WordPress website since this is a very popular website option currently. I was also keen to know what the difference is between creating a WordPress website and a WordPress blog. The best way to learn really is to plunge right in a create something so I did that as part of the learning process. I really enjoyed these short presentations from ne of the Internet sites I visited. Making a WordPress website using a hosted platformIt seems that there is that you can create a website that is hosted by Wordpress itself – but I have to look into all that. But generally, for a website, you would go for a hosted platform where you can add your own domain name and choose your own website size. These videos shown below were created with hosting on a particular platform in mind but the process is the same and the presenter, Paul, is excellent and easy to follow. The process is presented in seven short, easy to follow videos. What I like about this series is that the presenter has created a simple website and he shows how he went about it step-by-step.Video 1: How to Use WordPress (1 of 7) – Introduction (2m 12)This is a short simple video that does a great job of explaining about creating a WordPress website. and getting one started on the journey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9OhG7Wx1CY#t=41Video 2: How to Use WordPress (2 of 7) - Installing WordPress on yourBluehost Account (3m 41)Video 2 is about installing Wordpress on a particular hosted server so I won’t add that for now but it can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xngJPd9Vk-s&list=PLCAC66DEEFFEDD36E

Video 3: How to Use WordPress (3 of 7) - Changing Themes and Appearance (7m 59)In this video Paul explains how to change the appearance, or overall look and feel of your website, by selecting, installing, and activating different themes. He starts creating an example website by changing the header image and site title.

Video 4: How to Use WordPress (4 of 7) - Creating a Static Page (4m 57)In this video Paul shows how to create a static webpage, which is perfect for an 'about us' page, contact information, business hours and location, etc... He reveals the trick of how to remove comments from the page!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EkrvfhFrrY&list=SPCAC66DEEFFEDD36EVideo 5: How to Use WordPress (5 of 7) - Create a Page for Blog Posts(7m 39)In this video Paul shows how to create dynamic content in the form of a blog page on the website.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG6WEF716o&list=SPCAC66DEEFFEDD36EVideo 6: How to Use WordPress (6 of 7) - Create & Upload a Photo Gallery(6m 47)In this video Paul shows how easy it is to create, manage, and upload a photo gallery to your website! There's a lot of plugins that allow you to do this. For this video we demonstrate the NextGEN Gallery plugin that you can get at http://wordpress.org/plugins/nextgen-gallery/

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Are you a teacher that likes to use the media with your 13-19 year old students? If so, please think about joining our upcoming Adobe Youth Voices programme with a group of students – even if you need to form an after school club in order to do this. The great thing about it is that you’ll learn to create media with the free products and free online training from Adobe headquarters that we supply. All teachers and learners who meet all expectations will go into a prize draw to win great prizes and a trip to the next IEARN International conference. What is this programme all about?Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) is about igniting young people’s creative confidence – the ability to harness creative skills to solve problems – by empowering them to find their voice and make it heard. AYV is the Adobe Foundation’s global initiative to increase creativity in education, which we believe will better equip young people to be the problem solvers, critical thinkers, and leaders of tomorrow.At the heart of AYV is an educational methodology that provides youth 13-19 years of age with the inspiration, training and technology to create original media content on an issue they care about. Through this experience, participants hone skills of self-expression, ideation, collaboration, flexibility and persistence – the skills we believe are central to creative confidence. Who is eligible to participate• Schools or youth organizations that serve low-income, disadvantaged middle and high school youth (ages 13–19)• Access to or a plan to access media production equipment and resources • Commitment of site administrator and/or information technology department to expedite the installation of donated software on site computers as soon as it is made available. Course on offerThis is an opportunity for 6 educators from South Africa educators to join the course that starts in in February. Each new educator is expected to take one 8-week course. Date: February 17 – April 14, 2014Courses: iEARN Adobe Youth Voices Online Course Session Two·1 English Course· + 2 new courses for returning educators: Photoshop and Digital MessagingWhat are the benefits for me as a participating educator?In addition to learning skills in the use of Adobe Photoshop and Premier Elements, learn skills in facilitating workshops on creating media and creating social messaging, the following programme activities are also offered to participating teachers and learners. Aspire AwardsAspire Awards (youthvoices.adobe.com/awards/), a global online media festival, recognizes best-in-class content and creativity from youth around the world. AYV youth are invited to submit projects for online viewing and voting and winning projects are awarded software and hardware. AYV SummitThe AYV Summit brings together AYV educators, partners and youth from around the world for a bi-annual training and celebration of the program. The Summit fosters best practice sharing, cross-cultural exchanges, develops youth leadership, and celebrates best-in-class educators. Lead Educator Program The Lead Educator program has been designed as a way for AYV to maintain fidelity by supporting the core. AYV hosts an annual Lead Educator Training where Leads are prepared to be advocates for the program by articulating the need for creative confidence in their region and the community at large.How to apply1. Download the Application form from this link: 2. Send Ms Omashani Naidoo (omashani@schoolnet.org.za) an email to express interest in participating in the upcoming Adobe Youth Voices project.

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Last year in October Cape Town experienced the first ever Google Summit in Africa hosted by SchoolNet and Parklands College at Parklands College. It was presented by the amazing EdTech team from the USA and it was an exceptionally inspiring event for teachers in the classroom as well as anyone involved in education. If you would like to read more about what happened at the Google Summit in Cape Town or look at the various presentations please do visit http://za.gafesummit.com/

One of the really popular sites in South Africa that has over 2,000,000 downloads per month is e-classroom. The sites consists of CAPS related worksheets for Grade R-6 which are mainly in English (and Afrikaans) but are currently being translated into the other South African languages. On their home page the founder of e-classroom, Natalie Wood, says “This website was created for educators and parents to access support material to use in the classroom and at home. We provide excellent quality printable resources which can be downloaded for free for beneficiaries in South Africa. All our worksheets are aligned to the news CAPS curriculum and developed for the subject matters of: Mathematics, English, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Life Skills and Creative Arts. Our education content is developed by teachers who are dedicated to making a difference in education. Our free worksheets offer great opportunities for learners to practice key skills, and are easy to use. This initiative is open to all primary schools in South Africa and internationally as we believe that every child has a right to education.”

The Everything Maths and Science Grade 10-12 Maths
books from Siyavula have a small license fee attached as they are accompanied
by their Intelligent Practice
service ateverythingmaths.co.zaoreverythingscience.co.za. All questions are curriculum-aligned and based on the content in our
Everything Maths and Science textbooks. You can track your progress with your
personalised dashboard. Intelligent Practice is available for mobile, and is
coming soon to Mxit.

This site is part of Siyavula and consists of resource material for Grades 4 - 6 in Natural Sciences and Technology. These are openly-licensed workbooks, available in hardcopy, PDF, web books and EPUB, for desktop, tablets and mobile devices.Currently the following can be found on the website:

Grade 4 – 6 Natural Sciences and Technology Learner textbooks and Teacher Guides in English and Afrikaans that can be viewed online or downloaded as PDFs.

Science Adventure Comic Books for Grades 4,5 and 6 in English as well as Thinking Skills.

Concept maps to show the link between the grades.

Posters

This is whati s said about the project “There is much focus on the later grades in high school where learners are grappling with science and maths concepts. But, many of the misconceptions and problems that are evident at this level, often have their roots in the primary school phase. To attempt to improve the STEM subjects in South Africa, we actually need to start at the beginning and secure a strong foundation on which learners can build their future Science and Technology careers. This is something that we at Siyavula and the Sasol Inzalo Foundation believe strongly in. Not only this, but both organizations recognize the power and potential of open educational resources to make a difference to education in South Africa. This set the stage for a strong partnership to produce resources for Natural Sciences and Technology for Grades 4-6 to be printed by the Department of Basic Education for every child in a government school in 2013.”

Mindset is a South African not-for-profit company that creates, sources and distributes high quality, curriculum aligned digital content to support the education and health sectors. Mindset Learn is Mindset’s Schooling programme and provides video, print and interactive multimedia content designed to be used by teachers and learners in the classroom covering the curriculum for:

Intel has been collecting free educational resources which they have made available to South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya via their Intel Explore and Learn Market Place.This is what they say about it “Welcome to Intel® Explore and Learn your one stop shop for all digital education content. Through this platform learners can find and acquire free and paid for, textbooks, instructional videos, exam preparation materials to help them succeed in their studies. The content you will find on Intel® Explore and Learn ranges from officially approved text books and multimedia content to supplementary multimedia and interactive content from Kenyan and International providers all designed to make your learning experience that much more fun and engaging.”I wrote a blogpost abput the launch of the Intel Market Place when it was launched in Novemebr 2013: Intel launches its Explore and Learn Marketplace - great news for education in South Africa!

South African History Online is a user-friendly site offering alternative perspectives of history, focusing on untold stories and giving learners a chance to construct their own oral histories. The Classroom section has comprehensive content for grades 4 to 12. There's also plenty of information for teachers, and a well-illustrated section on arts and culture.

The website says, “Onnies Online provides free quality resources for South African teachers and offers a space to connect with fellow teachers! In Afrikaans óók! Visit the recently added page for new resources added to the website.”

This site has also been collecting free available resources and when you register and join the site some of the the links to the above-mentioned sites are available. The links also lead to download pages of the various resources. The Digital Classroom also has a link to Mindset at http://mindset.vodacomict.co.za/ and http://www.mindset.co.za/learn/xtra

10. Nokia free online Maths service to Grades 10 - 12

(http://momaths.nokia.com/za/m/login)

Nokia and the Department of Science and Technology launched
the excellent Mobile Maths service to all South African high school Maths learners.
Aligned to the CAPS curriculum, this service provides an excellent
complimentary mobile learning opportunity for students in Grade 10-12.

Use of the Mobile Mathematics service is possible with any
mobile phone with a data connection, or a computer with internet connection.
The service is browser based, so nothing needs to be installed on the phone or
computer to use it. The solution is free – the user faces only the data
connection costs. Please note that for all MTN and Cell C data users, this
service is zero-rated which means there is no data connection cost.

There are
different question types and these include multiple-choice; true of false;
open-ended and step-by-step (to test understanding the steps of solving an
exercise as opposed to learning by heart). The questions are randomised and
start at level 1(easy) and progresses to more difficult questions. The correct
answers earn learners points and they can compete against learners
nationally.

Wikipedia says "Mxit is a free instant messaging application developed by Mxit Lifestyle Ltd. in South Africa that runs on multiple mobile and computing platforms. Along with its own standard protocol, it can connect to Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Facebook, AIM, or Windows Live Messenger contacts."

This appears to be a Telkom site under construction for the Department of Education. On closer look it hosts all the free workbooks tht the Department issued to learners in 2011, and will soon have links to other free resources in South Africa.

Internet Biology Education Project The University of the Western Cape's botany department, the Western Cape Schools Network and the Western Cape education department collaborate to improve the teaching and learning of biology with online assistance. The site hosts mailing lists and newsgroups, and contains plenty of learning and teaching materials.

This blog provides a source of professional development in integrating technology into the day-to-day classroom experience for teachers in South Africa. Many technology tips and tricks, plus uses of new tools and webinar recordings can be found there.

If your Android tablet is starting to fill up with unwanted apps, or if you have tried out an app and you don't like it, it's a good time to learn how to uninstall unused apps. Here's how you do it. Note: If the app you want to uninstall is a system app that came with you Android tablet you won’t be able to uninstall it!

1. In the menu tap on Settings

2. Select 'Apps'
Tap on Apps and then find the app you are wanting to uninstall

If there's no uninstall button, it's a system app, and you can't delete it. Remember that these instructions will vary slightly from device to device depending on your OS (Operating System) but generally they will be similar. These screenshots are from my Android tablet which runs on Jelly Bean (version 4.1)Later versions might require you to tap on Application Manager.Further readingHow to Delete Android Apps from Your Phone or Tablet

Monday, 27 January 2014

Teachers are busy people and they have to remember a myriad of different things all day long. Everyone needs a good reminder system on their device, and for my Android I have downloaded a little app called ColorNote - it has saved my life quite a few times!

What is ColorNote?
ColorNote is a simple notepad app. It gives you a quick and simple notepad editing experience when you write notes, memo, email, message, shopping lists and to do lists. It has checklists and text notes. All the notes can be colour coded and can even have a reminder set for them in the calendar section of ColorNotes.
What can you do with ColorNote?

Notes and checklists

Colour coding

Stcky notes

Reminders

Calendar

Backup

A lock

Share

Archive

Autolink

List

Websearch

Why not try ColorNote? The links below show how two busy people make us of ColorNote

Friday, 24 January 2014

The first thing I looked around for when I obtained my Android tablet was a good, free office suite, preferably something that could be used offline as well as online. In my thinking it needed to be compatible with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint and Microsoft Excel. This post brings four productivity apps options – three that I that I have downloaded to try out and a fourth that I aspire to download in the near future.

Offline use (as well as online use) Kingsoft Office

Kingsoft Office can be used offline anywhere which is why I like it so much - and it also works well with Microsoft file extensions for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Apparently Kingsoft Office 5 s coming soon with a whole lot more features. Kingsoft Office Free can be used completely for free. It includes the three components of Writer, Spreadsheets and Presentation, which are great free alternatives to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint on an Android tablet. With Kingsoft Office, you no longer need to worry about compatibility issues.

Description
Kingsoft Office made USA Today’s 2013 “Best Apps for Mobile Phones and Tablets” list. It claims to be the only mobile Office with full-features FREE. It offers support for running on an Android 2.1 and above system. It has a user-friendly & nice UI interface! Users from over 200 countries and regions around the world are using it. Whether in a small cell phone screen or on a large screen on the Tablet, Kingsoft Office performs well.

Rich editing features! All is FREE!

Small size, stable operation, and special interface!

Support 23 kinds of files, including DOC/DOCX/TXT/XLS/XLSX/PPT/PPTX/PDF

This was my second choice as it works hand in glove with Google Drive.

Description.
This free app from Google lets you create and edit Microsoft® Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations on your Android phone and tablet. Sign in with your Google Account to save work in Google Drive, which gives you up to 15GB of free storage and lets you access your files from any mobile device or computer.

With Quickoffice and a Google Account you can:

Create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files

Access files in Google Drive and on your device

Open and view PDF files

Share files through previously shared Google Drive folders

Attach files to emails

Office Mobile

Please note: Office Mobile requires a qualifying Office 365 subscription. (See requirements below). That is why I am aspiring to use this in the future as currently I don’t have an Office 365 subecription
Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for your Android phone. You can access, view and edit your Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you make quick edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and content remain intact.

Thursday, 23 January 2014

What are Learning Circles?
Learning Circles are highly interactive, project-based partnerships among a small number of schools located throughout the world. The website is very informative http://collaborate.iearn.org/space-17. Learning Circles provide a great structure for educators, both those new to global project-based learning and those with experience already, and also come with a comprehensive Teachers Guide ( more info here - http://www.iearn.org/circles ).

There are two sessions each year, September - January and January - May. The next session begins January 30, 2014, and ends on May 30, 2014 (15 weeks with a 1-week break in April). Learning Circle Placement forms are due on January 29, 2014.

Registration deadline
Learning Circles has extended the deadline for registration for the January-May session of iEARN Global Learning Circles until Jan 29 to accommodate an additional number of Learning Circle options being offered. More info here: http://collaborate.iearn.org/space-17

Additional themes being offered this session include:Money Matters: A comparative international exploration about the role, value, significance, and history of money in each participating country. Through creative writing, art, and project work, students will collaboratively investigate how money affects our lives.

My City and City: A social, cultural and environmental project that encourages students to explore what they can do to improve their life in the place they live, so they can be active members of their communities.

My Hero Multimedia: An advanced level mulitmedia project for teachers and students who are interested in putting the principles of the My Hero project into action. Students and teachers will explore the use of the My Hero multi-media page. Several training sessions about making a short film will be offered.

Global Issues: Environment: Allows students to discuss a broad range of environmental social, political, and economic issues with concern and affect the Earth's entire population.

Global Issues: Education: Encourages students to investigate education as a fundamental human right as well as the broad range of issues regarding education throughout the world.

The traditional project themes of Computer Chronicles, Places and Perspectives, Mindworks, and My Hero will also be offered for all age levels (elementary, middle, and high school).

The upcoming session begins January 30, 2014, and ends on May 25, 2014 (15 weeks with a 1-week break in April). Get started with Learning Circles
Learning Circle Placement forms are now due January 29, 2014. In order to participate in Learning Circles, teachers need to be registered in iEARN, and then fill out a special online Learning Circles placement form -http://collaborate.iearn.org/space-17Contact details for further questions
For more information about iEARN Learning Circles, including Frequently Asked Questions, seewww.iearn.org/circles. A Learning Circles Teachers Guide is available to help educators organize their participation. Feel free to be in touch with Lisa Jobson ljobson@us.iearn.org or Barry Kramer at bskramer48@hotmail.com if you have any questions about registering for a Learning Circle!

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

The use of word clouds in the classroom is a good way to really get through to visual learners. A word cloud is a visual image of collection of words made up of words from various sources such as words that you add yourself, a website, a poem or story etc. The great thing about word clouds is that not only do students love using them, but they are eas and valuable y to use in a variety of content areas and grade levels. My favourite word cloud generator in the past has been Wordle, but today I used Tagxedo in class and the students embraced it with great ease.

How to use Tagxedo
Tagxedo is free and is incredibly easy to use. I have created a SlideShare below to illustrate the steps.

Using Tagxedo as an icebreaker in the first week of the year
At this time of the year teachers are usually conducting activities relating to getting to know their students and yesterday I did likewise with a Grade 6 class.

They wrote their names at least ten times to ensure that their names stood out.

We also used the time to revise grammar while we were about it. ‘Write down three adjectives that best describe you’ etc.

Finally they chose a shape that best depicts them.

They reported back on their word clouds to the rest of the class.

Using word clouds in the classroom
The Internet is full of ideas on how teachers have used word clouds in their lessons. Here are a few relevant posts loaded with ideas for all subjects.

Monday, 20 January 2014

What are your thoughts on climate change? Truth is we have to wake up to the problems of climate change but not create fear or despair. Each one of us has the power to make a difference. This is where Environment Online (better known as ENO) comes in. The ENO website is very informative http://climatesmart.enoprogramme.org/ ENO says “Be Climate Smart! The ENO Programme calls schools to study about climate change and organize awareness raising campaigns on energy efficiency. “ Join the ENO campaign and sign up for Skype sessionsBe Climate Smart! The ENO Programme calls schools to study about climate change and organise awareness raising campaigns on energy efficiency. They invite you too join their campaign in February.

Theme will crystallize on the ENO Campaign Week 10-16 Feb with Frank’s Flashmob 12 Feb 2014, aiming to organize the most international flash mob ever! Another ENO Flashmob will take place also 19 Mar 2013.

During their campaign week 10-14 Feb WNO will organise Skype sessions between schools. Schools have to register to event so we will match schools to interact! Find the Google form here. Once your registration has been processed your school’s name will appear on the website on this page http://climatesmart.enoprogramme.org/video-conferences-10-16-feb-2014. You will be notified of the details that will involve in the Campaign week.

Questions to discuss over Skype

What effects has climate change in your country?

Which of them are negative, could some of them be positive?

How do you act climate smart at school and in your daily life?

Flashmob details for 12th Feb and 19th MarchOn the website you’ll also find the FlashMob song, poster and other downloads and details about the flashmob – also how to run a flashmob from your school for the event. Your class will love taking part. Read more here

This is a world-wide event! Here is a video from last year’s event from Uzbekhistan.

Further videos can be seen on the ENO website here. What is climate change

Climate change is a long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. The climate has and will always vary for natural reasons. However, natural causes can explain only a small part of the warming observed in recent decades. The overwhelming majority of scientists agree that it is due to rising concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human activities. The United Nations have created The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), consisting of a group of scientists, in order to evaluate the risks of climate change (caused by human activities). Read more about this on the ENO website hereSummary of what you need to do

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